Powerbook 5300
From Mac Guides
Introduced in 1995 the Powerbook 5300 series represented the first Apple laptops to ship with a PowerPC processor. However their introduction was plagued by technical problems, and poor design. The PowerBook 5300 series shared the same case as the 68LC040-based PowerBook 190 series. In fact, motherboards are swappable between the two; and parts that were not included in the 190 series, such as the IR transceiver, could be transplanted into a PowerBook 190.
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Standard Features
- Sleep swappable drive bay
- 1.4 MB Superdrive
- Track pad
- IR Transceiver
- 2 Type II PC Card Slots
- 1 ADB Port, 1 Serial Port, 1 SCSI HDI-30 port
Powerbook 5300 Models and Specifications
5300
- 100 Mhz PowerPC 603e 33.3 Mhz Bus Speed
- 8 MB RAM Expandable to 64 MB
- 500 MB Hard Drive
- 9.5-inch Passive Matrix Grayscale Screen
5300c
- 100 Mhz PowerPC 603e 33.3 Mhz Bus Speed
- 8/16 MB RAM Expandable to 64 MB
- 500 MB or 750 MB Hard Drive
- 10.4-inch Active Matrix Color Screen (Capable of 640x480 with 256 colors [8-bit], or 640x400 "Letterbox" with thousands of colors [16-bit])
5300ce
- 117mhz PowerPC 603e 33.3 Mhz Bus Speed
- 32 MB RAM Expandable to 64 MB
- 1.1 GB Hard Drive
- 10.4-inch Active Matrix Color Screen (Capable of 800x600 with thousands of colors [16-bit])
5300cs
- 100 Mhz PowerPC 603e 33.3 Mhz Bus Speed
- 8/16 MB RAM Expandable to 64 MB
- 500 MB or 750 MB Hard Drive
- 10.4-inch Dual Scan Color Screen (Capable of 640x480 with 256 colors [8-bit], or 640x400 "Letterbox" with thousands of colors [16-bit])
Compatible Mac OS
The 5300 series shipped with Mac OS 7.5.2 installed
The 5300 series is compatible with up to Mac OS 9.1
Problems
Before the system was released in a few rare instances the battery caught fire. This was fixed before the computer was released, but this problem helped create a lot of bad press for Apple. The 5300 series shipped many units DOA, compounding the battery issue. In addition the power management system was not strong enough to run certain external devices on battery power. Apple had a lot of quality control issues with the 5300 series, and the 5300 series is considered by some to be one of the worst computers Apple shipped.
Apple issued a warranty extension for problems relating to the faulty screen hinge or the motherboard, which extended the warranty by up to 4 years.
Successor
The 5300 series was replaced by the PowerBook 1400 series in 1996.
